Fun Ways to Bet the World Series
Major League Baseball's World Series may not quite generate the same excitement or the revenue of the Super Bowl or the Final Four, but it's still a big time for office pools, taverns and friendly get-togethers. Most of these events will involve having a bit of cash involved to liven things up and it's possible to win a lot for a little, which is never a bad thing.While many seasoned sports gamblers tend to scoff at such things as office pools, they are among the best wagers you can make from a business standpoint, as all of the money collected for an office pool will go to the winners. There is no house take, such as there is for sports betting, horse racing, casino games and nearly every other type of wagering possibility there is.
Office Pools
Naturally the size of the office you work in will play a role in determining what type of pool you can have. The person running the pool will want to give everybody who wants a chance to participate, but at the same time not be responsible for spending a large amount to fill up the pool.The most common office pool during the World Series is the World Series Box Pool which will be found in offices, taverns and other places.
Box Pool Variations
The one problem with the World Series box pool is that certain combinations have no chance of winning. Imagine finding out that you have 9-9 in a box pool and know the only way you can win is if one team beats the other 19-9.To make it a bit more fair for those who will get stuck with 3-3, 6-6, etc., you can declare the pool final at the end of nine innings. That will give everybody a better opportunity to hold the winning square. While it's still unlikely that a person holding 8-8 will win, it's certainly better than needed an 18-8 ballgame.
Personally, I would specifiy the pool will pay out 50-percent after nine innings and the remaining 50-percent when the game is final. The majority of the time it's going to be the same person who wins both halves of the pool, but gives those with duplicate numbers a chance to bring home some money in games that go to extra innings.
Pool for hits instead of runs, or the total linescore (runs plus hits plus errors) are other ways to run pools that don't penalize the 10-percent of the people who will hold duplicate numbers.
The 10 Slip Pool
For smaller offices or small home parties, 100 squares may simply be too many to fill, so a smaller pool may be in order. The easiest way to do that is to simply write down the numbers 0 through 9 on slips of paper and draw numbers.The person who holds the number of the two teams' combined score is the winner. If the game exceeds 10 total runs, the last number of the combined final score is used. (If the game ends 7-5 the person with the number "2" would be the winner, while the person holding the number "4" would win if the final score was 8-6.
For Smaller Groups
If there are just several people and they are all fans of the same team it's unlikely they'll be able to get one person to wager their favorite team. But if they still want a little additional rooting interest, two fans of the same team can wager on if the final score will be an odd or an even number, if the total number of hits is an odd or even number, whether there will be more strikeouts, groundouts or flyballs, the number of times the Red Sox are mentioned and a whole lot more. There is really no limit to the number of ideas you can come up with.Finding an Edge
Even though you may be wagering against your friends and co-workers, you still want to win and there's nothing wrong with that. If you want to get every edge you can, wait until the World Series teams are determined and look at different sportsbooks, such as The Greek and see what the odds are on the proposition bets they are offering. Once you know the odds the sportsbooks have, look for those who will happily wager against you taking the worst of the sportsbooks odds. While you still may not win your wager, you should have the best of it in the long run. The sportsbooks will also give you more ideas of potential wagers you and your friends may not have thought of.Since proposition wagers involve the money line be sure you're familiar with that concept before looking at the sportsbook odds.
Have fun and good luck.
